California for all good intents and dubious purposes has a death penalty that is missing one key deterrent to barbaric crimes: death itself.

The death penalty hasn’t worked, and the only success — if such a word can be used with capital punishment — is a legal industry generated among various groups that have fought it tooth and nail, rendering the sentence essentially toothless.

The facts are stark: Since 1978, when the death penalty was reinstituted by voters, 930 people have been sentenced in a court of law to pay the supreme penalty for heinous acts. Of those, 13 have been executed, with no executions since 2006. Meanwhile the state has spent $4 billion on maintaining the system.

Proposition 62 on the Nov. 8 ballot will abolish the death penalty in California and replace it with life in prison without the possibility of parole. Recent polls have shown voters may be leaning the other way, with all segments of state voters polling against the measure — except for African-American voters.

We don’t know if opponents know how few people have been executed and the overall cost to California — and how the money could have been better spent on law enforcement, education and family support — all of which would help prevent violent crime.

Give opponents their due, however: They point out one reason so few executions have taken place in California is that opponents have found just about every legal tactic available to stop them. In addition to appellate attorneys, there’s the politicians. Gov. Jerry Brown, for instance, told voters he would implement the death penalty — although he personally opposes it. But he’s done nothing to spur on the state Corrections Department into letting the law do what it is supposed to do. Nor has state Attorney General Kamala Harris, favored to win the race for U.S. senator in November, done all that much to enforce it.

Proponents of the death penalty also point out that there is no proof an innocent person has been executed in the state since 1978. Finally, they say, just wait, if the death penalty is abolished for being barbaric and for not preventing crime, then life sentences without the possibility of parole will be next on the radar.

The death penalty is on the books to be a deterrent to crime. It can’t be when it’s rarely if ever enforced. For every year between 2008-2013, the average homicide rate of states without the death penalty was significantly lower than those that still permit capital punishment.

Evidence also shows that the death penalty has been unevenly applied throughout California. The state’s independent Legislative Analysts Office estimates abolishing the death penalty would reduce state costs by $150 million every year. It costs $90,000 a year more to keep a prisoner on death row than to keep them in prison.

There’s a competing death penalty ballot measure, Proposition 66, which seeks to remedy the high costs and long delays by speeding up the process of executing convicts. But while current delays are unacceptable, speed is hardly of the essence when taking a human life.

Nineteen other states have already abolished their death penalty. No other Western nation has capital punishment on the books although the death penalty is prominent in countries such as North Korea, Pakistan, Libya, Iran, Saudi Arabia and China.

Vote no on Proposition 66 — and vote yes on Proposition 62. Abolish the death penalty in California.